The Sacred Place by Daniel Black
In the summer of 1955, fourteen-year-old Clement enters a general store in Money, Mississippi to purchase a soda. Unaware or the consequences of flouting the rules governing black-white relations in the South, this Chicago native lays the dime on the counter and turns to depart. Miss Cuthbert, the store attendant, demands that he place the money in her hand, but he refuses and exits with a sense of entitlement unknown to black people at the time. His brutal murder sparks a racial war in Money that forces the black community to galvanize its strength in pursuit of racial equality. Readers won't forget this poignant story that calls us to explore the best and worst in the human condition.